Good morning! Today: a guide to how the 2020 campaigns are using technology, and why we must prepare for another well-timed stolen data dump. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. | The technology that powers the 2020 campaigns, explained
Campaigns and elections have always been about data—underneath the empathetic promises to fix your problems and fight for your family, it’s a business of metrics. If a campaign is lucky, it will find its way through a wilderness of polling, voter attributes, demographics, turnout, impressions, gerrymandering, and ad buys to connect with voters in a way that moves or even inspires them. Campaigns that collect and use the numbers best win. That’s been true for some time, of course. In 2017, Hillary Clinton lamented that the Democratic National Committee had supplied her team with out-of-date data. She blamed this in part for her loss to Donald Trump, whose campaign sat atop an impressive Republican data-crunching machine. (The DNC retorted that it wasn’t the data, but how it was used, that was inadequate.) In 2020, campaigns have added new wrinkles to their tactics for gathering and manipulating data. Traditional polling is giving way to AI-powered predictive modeling; massive data exchanges, once considered questionably legal, allow campaigns, PACs, and other groups to coordinate their efforts. And who can forget microtargeting? Both campaigns seek to arm themselves with comprehensive views of each potential voter and are using algorithms to segment and target voters more specifically and strategically. Here is our guide to what’s new and improved, and what it means for you, the voter. —Tate Ryan-Moseley
| | Why security experts are braced for the next election hack-and-leak The situation: Just as in the case of Wikipedia’s leak of Clinton’s emails in 2016, a well-timed dump of stolen data could distract us, overwhelm the news cycle and change the 2020 election. How likely is it? Hack-and-leak operations have become common, with repeated incidents in Saudi Arabia, France, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. They have become a go-to tool for foreign nations looking to impact politics, partly as they are relatively easy to do. Is the US any better prepared? Journalists and Silicon Valley are still vulnerable to this old twist on the art of information warfare. The Russian hackers who carried out the 2016 operation were spotted targeting Democratic organizations just this month. With the presidential election just 36 days away, the possibility of another distracting dump of hacked information looms large. But there are things we can do. Read the full story. —Patrick Howell O’Neill | The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Covid-19 testing is not a panacea False positives and negatives mean it’s ultimately human behavior, not tests, that break the chain of transmission. ( Wired $) + Vaccine chaos is coming. ( The Atlantic) + China is giving unproven coronavirus vaccines to thousands. ( NYT $) + A resurgence of the virus in Manaus, Brazil, might damage herd immunity hopes. ( Reuters) 2 Reddit bots are hunting online racists Automated bots and browser plug-ins are in a fight against hate speech. ( Wired UK) 3 The Biden campaign is trying to conquer YouTube More than a quarter of all US adults say the site is a major source of news for them. ( The Verge) + The Trump campaign collected Facebook data to try to deter millions of Black Americans from voting in 2016. ( Channel 4) + What’s the plan if Trump falsely tweets that he’s won the election? ( NYT $) + Why the right-wing does so well online. ( Politico) 4 One of the US’s biggest hospital chains has been hit with a ransomware attack These attacks are only becoming bigger and more brazen. ( NBC) + A patient died after a ransomware attack recently—the first death directly linked to a cyberattack. ( TR) 5 The US no longer seems to stand for internet freedom The TikTok and WeChat bans represent an abandonment of its principles. ( Slate) + A judge has ruled that they “likely exceed” the bounds of the law. ( WP $) 6 Is it time for Uber to give up on self-driving cars? 🚗 It’s ploughed billions into the technology, with remarkably little to show for it. ( The Information $) 7 There might be even more underground reservoirs of liquid water on Mars The most exciting thing? They could be home to extraterrestrial life. ( TR) 8 Inside the airline industry’s collapse ✈️ Customers have disappeared, and it’s not clear if they’ll ever return in the same numbers. ( The Guardian) + Airbnb had to decide whether to help hosts or guests. It chose guests. ( Slate) 9 A newly-legal startup in Washington state turns dead people into soil It’s a cheaper and more environmentally-friendly option than the usual burial. ( OneZero) 10 How HOTorNOT shaped the web Tinder, Twitter and even YouTube were influenced by the forgotten joke website. ( Mashable) | | “The danger is that you’ve got law enforcement who have a tremendous amount of responsibility who are showing complete disconnect from reality. They carry weapons.” —Jake Rockatansky, co-host of the podcast QAnon Anonymous tells Mother Jones why it’s so worrying that cops are buying into the mass delusion. | | | | | |
